She wanted to build a garden for fellow hospice residents. Volunteers made her dream come true in a day - Action News
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British Columbia

She wanted to build a garden for fellow hospice residents. Volunteers made her dream come true in a day

Around 40 people in Prince George, B.C., helped cancer patient Jodi Fay fulfil her wish of building a garden close to the hospice where she lives.

Around 40 people respond to callout to help complete woodland trail for Jodi Fay in Prince George, B.C.

Prince George citizens help hospice tenant complete her final wish: building a woodland trail

1 year ago
Duration 0:26
Volunteer David Mothus shows the trail that was built on Saturday out of the bush near the Palliative Care Society building.

For Jodi Fay, the actof building a garden is to believe in tomorrow.

Fay, who has terminal pancreatic cancer, wanted to create a trail with benches on her friend's land close to the Prince George, B.C., hospice where she lives, as a garden space where she and fellow residents could find joy and peace.

"I wanted to offer a space that future families and sick patients can come into a quiet spot where they can just sit and reflect, but yet not have a visual of the [hospice] building," she said.

Fay, who will turn60 next Friday, says she tried to work on the project by herself but had to pausewhen she got tired.

But thanks to a fellow hospice residentand the support of the local community,she was able to see her wish fulfilled in just a single day.

On Saturday, about 40 residents gathered at the woodland near the Palliative Care Society'shospice in the central B.C. city tolayrocks for a pathand installa wooden door to mark the trailhead.

One of the volunteers even brought a track loader to help move the heavy rocks and make the work easier.

A group of people are picture being lined up in a woodland in front of a wooden door.
Jodi Fay (in front of the door) flanked by the community volunteers who built a trail for her garden space on a plot of forested land close to the hospice where she lives in Prince George, B.C. (Hell Yeah Prince George/Facebook)

'You can't help but be affected'

After he was contacted by Fay's fellow resident,David Mothus put a call out for help for Fay's project last week on the Facebook groupHell Yeah Prince George,which has 46,000 members a considerable number considering the city has a population of around 76,000.

Mothus, the group's administrator, saidhe wasthrilled to see so many people showing up despite the rain.

"These people weren't all Jodi's friends They were just people who saw this human doing this and showed up and started working," he said.

"They were all not connected except in this common thing of her story. It's a powerful thing you can't help but be affected by that kind of determination."

A woman with green hat and yellow jacket stands on a grassland.
An undated photo of Jodi Fay, who has terminal pancreatic cancer. She says she hopes other people can continue expanding the garden in the future. (Jodi Fay/Facebook)

Fay, who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago,says her vision to build a garden for fellow hospice residents came from her love for life and her passion for helping others.

"I can sit down and die, or I can stand up and live," she said."I'm standing up and livingand I've got my breath. I've got my legs, I've got the beauty around me, I've got my people, I've got everybody.

"So what's there not to live for?"

Fay saidshe teared up when she saw so many people had helped make her dream come true.She hopes other people can continue expanding the garden space in the future.

"It's for the community. It's for the people that need it," she said.

"That's going to be there for the rest of my life and for many years to come."

A woman with scarf is pictured holding a rock standing at a wooden door in a woodland.
Jodi Fay stands in the doorway that marks the trailhead of the path. (Hell Yeah Prince George/Facebook)

With files from Radio West